About Hebrew Philosophy

In the world, past and present, there are two major types of cultures; East (Hebrew), such as today’s oriental cultures of the Far East, and West (Greek), such as Europe and America. Both of these cultures view their surroundings, lives, and purpose in ways that would seem foreign to the other. The Ancient Hebrews were Eastern thinkers, more closely related to today’s Orientals than Americans or even Modern day Hebrews in Israel, which has adopted a western culture.

What happened to this Ancient Hebrew thought and culture? Around 800 BCE, the Greek culture arose in the north. This new culture began to view the world very much differently than the Hebrews. Around 200 BCE the Greeks began to move south causing a coming together of the Greek and Hebrew culture. This was a very tumultuous time as the two vastly different cultures collided.

Over the following 400 years the battle raged until finally the Greek culture won and virtually eliminated all traces of the Ancient Hebrew culture. The Greek culture then in turn, influenced all following cultures including the Roman and European cultures. Our own American culture and even the Modern Hebrew culture in Israel today are strongly influenced by the Greek culture.

As 21st Century Americans with a strong Greek thought influence, we read the Hebrew Bible as if a 21st Century American had written it. In order to understand the Ancient Hebrew culture in which the Bible was written in, we must examine some of the differences between Hebrew and Greek thought. There are many differences between Hebrew and Greek thought, but here we will confine our focus on those differences that impact the interpretation of words.

Abstract vs. concrete thought

Greek thought views the world through the mind (abstract thought). Ancient Hebrew thought views the world through the senses (concrete thought).

Concrete thought is the expression of concepts and ideas in ways that can be seen, touched, smelled, tasted and/or heard. All five of the senses are used when speaking, hearing, writing and reading the Hebrew language. An example of this can be found in Psalms 1:3; “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither”. In this passage the author expresses his thoughts in concrete terms such as; tree, streams of water, fruit and leaf.

Abstract thought is the expression of concepts and ideas in ways that cannot be seen, touched, smelled, tasted or heard. Abstract thought is a foreign concept to the Ancient Hebrew mind. Examples of Abstract thought can be found in Psalms 103:8; “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger, abounding in love”. The words compassion, grace, anger and love are all abstract words, ideas that cannot be experienced by the senses. Why do we find these abstract words in a passage of concrete thinking Hebrews? Actually, these are abstract English words used to translate the original Hebrew concrete words. The translators often translate this way because the original Hebrew makes no sense when literally translated into English.

Let us take one of the above abstract words to demonstrate the translation from a concrete Hebrew word to an abstract English word. Anger, an abstract word, is actually the Hebrew word aph which literally means “nose”, a concrete word. When one is very angry, he begins to breath hard and the nostrils begin to flare. A Hebrew sees anger as “the flaring of the nose (nostrils)”. If the translator literally translated the above passage “slow to nose”, the English reader would not understand.

Appearance vs. Functional Description

Greek thought describes objects in relation to its appearance. Hebrew thought describes objects in relation to its function.

A Greek description of a common pencil would be; "it is yellow and about eight inches long". A Hebrew description of the pencil would be related to its function such as "I write words with it". Notice that the Hebrew description uses the verb "write" while the Greek description uses the adjectives "yellow" and "long". Because of Hebrew's form of functional descriptions, verbs are used much more frequently then adjectives.

To our Greek way of thinking a deer and an oak are two very different objects and we would never describe them in the same way. The Hebrew word for both of these objects is ayil because the functional description of these two objects are identical to the Ancient Hebrews, therefore, the same Hebrew word is used for both.

The Hebraic definition of lya is "a strong leader". A deer stag is one of the most powerful animals of the forest and is seen as "a strong leader" among the other animals of the forest. The wood of the oak tree is very hard compared to other trees and is seen as a "strong leader" among the trees of the forest.

Notice the two different translations of the Hebrew word lya in Psalms 29:9. The NASB and KJV translates it as "The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve" while the NIV translates it as "The voice of the LORD twists the oaks". The literal translation of this verse in Hebrew thought would be; "The voice of the LORD makes the strong leaders turn ".

When translating the Hebrew into English, the Greek thinking translator will give a Greek description to this word for the Greek thinking reader, which is why we have two different ways of translating this verse. This same word "ayil” is also translated as a "ruler" (a strong leader of men) in 2 Kings 24.15.

Passive vs. Active Nouns

Greek nouns are words that refer to a person, place or thing. Hebrew nouns refer to the action of a person place or thing.

The Hebrews are active people and their vocabulary reflects this lifestyle. The Greek culture recognizes words such as knee and gift as nouns, which by themselves impart no action. But, in Hebrew, just as in most Ancient languages , there is no distinction between nouns and verbs, all words are related to action. The Greek mind designates a knee and a gift as inanimate nouns unrelated in meaning. The Hebrew mind sees the knee berakh as "the knee that bends" and a gift berakah as "what is brought with a bent knee".

Even the Hebrew nouns for father and mother are descriptive of action. The Hebrew word for father is av and literally means "the one who gives strength to the family" and mother eym means "the one that binds the family together".

When we read the Ancient texts of the Hebrew Bible we must remember that the words used are related to the Ancient Hebrew culture and thought. We need, therefore, to suppress our Western Greek minds, leaving them for reading the Modern classics.